This question was tackled by the Full Federal Court of Australia in Kafataris v Davis [2016] FCAFC 134. The patent in suit related to an alternative manner of playing card games. The player could play a primary game while at the same time exercising betting options on a secondary or auxiliary game, either separately from…

On 24 June 2016, the Full Federal Court of Australia upheld an appeal from a first instance decision which gave a broad construction to an omnibus claim in the case of GlaxoSmithKline Australia Pty Ltd v Reckitt Benckiser Healthcare (UK) Ltd [2016] FCAFC 90. Reckitt’s claim against GSK included allegations of infringement of various claims (including…

On 29 April 2016, the Australian Productivity Commission published a Draft Report on its enquiry into Australia’s Intellectual Property Arrangements. Although the Draft Report provides separate analyses on the state of copyright, patents, designs and trade marks, it arrives at a common conclusion: Aussie IP needs work. “Not as effective as they could be” The…

A panel of international judges gave their interesting perspectives on the tribunals on which they serve and the cases which they hear. Annabelle Bennett (Federal Court of Australia) discussing case management in Australia introducing reforms to streamline procedure and how this has been successful (in taking some power away from the lawyers). In particular, she…